


Strays

by hellacluttered



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: bros being bros, faraquez being frenemies, mag7 - Freeform, the magnificent seven - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-18 22:50:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10626777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellacluttered/pseuds/hellacluttered
Summary: Seven dudes at a boarding school, causing trouble and being bros.





	1. Chapter 1

    “Sure you’re in the right place?”

    Manuel looked irritably back over his shoulder at the open door, his brows drawing together, his shoulders stiffening confrontationally. Coming through the door was a tall, brawny boy, a large Nike duffel bag in one hand and a backpack over his shoulder. His mocking tone was echoed in the smirk on his lips and he walked through the door with easy confidence, tossing his bags on the bunk opposite Manuel’s. “What makes you say that, _ cabrón _ ?”

    “You gonna try and clock me if I tell you?” 

    Manuel frowned, trying to repress the anger flaring in his chest. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” he said dispassionately, turning back to his bunk, where he was folding the jumbled clothes he had dumped out of his worn leather suitcase whose ancient latch was all but destroyed.

    “You’re Vasquez?” 

    He nodded. “You’re Faraday?”

    “Yeah.”

    “We’re off to a great start,” Manuel muttered under his breath and Joshua asked,

    “What was that?”

    “Never mind,” Manuel said, reaching for his earbuds and pointedly ending the conversation as he slipped them into his ears.

    “Suit yourself,” he heard Joshua’s voice come faintly through his music.

    Joshua set a speaker on his desk and synced his phone, turning on a raucous rock album he’d recently bought before unzipping his duffel bag and getting to work unpacking.

    “Hey, Faraday!” he turned to see Manuel positively glowering at him. The other boy waved his phone in the air, holding up the wire of his earbuds.

    “Oh, sorry,” Joshua said with no real regret and turned his back on Manuel again, turning down the volume of his speaker just a few notches, which made no real difference, before getting back to work.

    The two continued at their tasks for a few minutes before Joshua began to sing along, revealing that he was shamelessly tone-deaf, and his additions to the music, which began as some out-of-time humming with the ends of phrases, quickly swelled to full-blown singing along, his volume increasing rapidly, and finally Manuel stood, yanking out his earbuds and tossing them on the bed before stalking across the room and grabbing Joshua by the shoulder, turning him around with a lot more force than was necessary. Taken by surprise, Joshua stumbled, struggling to regain his balance, his eyes flashing with surprise and anger. Manuel was just taking a deep breath to let loose a tirade when there came a knock on the doorframe and Joshua looked toward it, his cocky, ready-to-fight expression quickly replaced by a real smile, his broad shoulders relaxing. His hand, which still held his phone, quickly paused his music and he stepped away from Manuel, who finally looked over to see who had arrived. 

    “Sam!” Faraday said, grabbing the hand of the boy at the door in a rough handshake before pulling him into a half-embrace. 

    “What’s up, Josh?”

    “Just, you know, meeting the new roommate and all. Think he might be lost, but-”

    Manuel started forward, that was it, this boy needed a black eye- but Sam stepped easily between them, hands held up, palms out, in a placating gesture. “Hey now, no need to fight today.”

    “Yeah, get settled in first and then do it,” another voice said and Manuel’s gaze shifted past Sam to see another student in the hall, this one with a playful smile on his face, thick blond hair slightly rumpled, his lean frame almost totally enveloped by Joshua’s immediate embrace. 

    “How’ve you been, Goody?” Joshua asked enthusiastically.

    “Not bad. And yourself?”

    “So far, so good,” Joshua replied, finally releasing the other student.

    “Who’s this?” Goodnight asked, passing Sam to meet Manuel.

    “Manuel Vasquez, isn’t it?” Sam said. “Manuel, this is Goodnight Robicheaux.”

    “Er, hi,” Manuel said as he shook Goodnight’s outstretched hand. “But how’d you know who I am?” he asked.

    “Couldn’t be the name on the door, could it?” Joshua remarked and Sam said,

    “Shut up a minute, Josh,” before turning back to Manuel. “You’re new here, so I’m gonna help you fit in, meet people, learn where things are. Also, I pirty whoever gets stuck with Joshua, so I’m happy to help if I can.”

    Manuel couldn’t stop his chuckle at Joshua’s affronted expression. “Thanks.”

    “Sure thing. I’m down the hall, last door on the right. If you need anything, let me know.”

    “Will do.”

    “Try not to be too much of a pain in the ass,” Sam said to Joshua as he left the room again but his tone was playful and Joshua just grumbled something under his breath in response.

    “So, which one of you is gonna kill the other in his sleep?” Goodnight asked cheerfully.

    “Well, I’d like to, but I worked too hard to get here, so…” Vasquez trailed off. “What?” he asked Joshua, who was staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

    “He didn’t work to get here, did you, Josh?” Goodnight said.

    “‘Course I did!” Joshua said and turned away abruptly, opening the top drawer of his dresser and beginning to stuff his clothes in in no particular order.

    “His family’s got connections,” Goodnight explained to Manuel.

    “Mind your own business, Goody,” Joshua said, and this time there was nothing playful in his tone, just plain irritation.

    “All right, all right. Well, I’ll leave you two to it then,” Goodnight said. “Nice to meet you, Manuel.”

   “You too,” Manuel replied. Goodnight left, closing the door behind him again. Manuel watched Joshua for a few moments longer but the other boy didn’t speak and Manuel shrugged and got back to organizing his belongings.

* * *

 

    “Poor Manuel,” Goodnight said as he entered Sam’s room without knocking, leaving the door open behind him.

    Sam chuckled. “Yeah. I feel bad for the guy. Who’s your roommate this year?”

    “Billy Rocks. He’s been around here forever I guess, but I’ve never talked to him. We’ll see how it goes. How about you?”

    “I asked not to have one and I guess the high-ups are feeling merciful for once.”

    “It might be that our class doesn’t have an even number of people,” Goodnight said.

    “Didn’t we last year?” Sam said. “No one left, did they?”

    “You didn’t hear the news?” Goodnight asked and Sam shook his head. “Matt Cullen left. Issues at home or something like that.”

    “Ahh,” Sam said, nodding slowly. “Have you talked to Emma?”

    “Yeah, she’s all right,” Goodnight said, looking out the window at the girls’ school across the street. “She says they’ll stay in touch and stuff.”

    “That’s good,” Sam said. “Well… Guess I’ll see you around, Goody. I gotta work on this essay for U of Georgia.”

    Goodnight cringed. “Have fun with that. Guess I’ll go meet this Billy guy.”

    Sam nodded, settling down at his desk with his laptop. “See you later.”

    “Later.”


	2. Chapter 2

    Manuel looked up from his book at the sound of a knock on the door and called, “Come in!”

    The door cracked open and Goodnight stuck his head in. “Hey, we’re going downtown; you guys wanna come?”

    “Hell yeah!” Joshua exclaimed but Manuel hesitated, unsure if he wanted to commit to spending the whole evening with a bunch of people he didn’t really know yet; it had a lot of potential to turn exceedingly awkward, and he was tired from his trip to school that morning.

    “Uh, I was thinking about going to bed early…” he said, realizing as he said it how lame it sounded.

    “Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Goodnight said, pushing the door open all the way and stepping fully into the room. “Don’t you want to get to know people?”

    “Well yeah, but-”

    “Come on,” Goodnight said firmly, grabbing the book from Manuel’s lap, closing it and setting it on the desk. “Let’s go!”

    Manuel chuckled at Goodnight’s enthusiasm, pushing himself up and off the bed. “All right then.”

    He slid on his sneakers, grabbing his wallet and phone from the desk, and followed Goodnight and Joshua into the hall. A ways away, Sam was waiting with several others, all talking cheerfully. “Ready to go?” Sam asked the three joining them and then the group headed out.

    “We haven’t met; I’m Manuel Vasquez,” Manuel said, extending his hand to the student walking next to him. The boy was slightly shorter than him but his walk was confident, his shoulders broad, and his bearing proud. 

    “Red Harvest,” the boy said. “Call me Red.”

    “Nice to meet you,” Manuel said. “What year are you?”

    “Junior,” Red said. “You?”

    “Senior.”

    Red looked slightly surprised, but his features quickly turned composed again. 

    “What?” Manuel asked, though he was pretty much certain already what Red was going to say.

    Red shrugged. “Well, not many students transfer this late.”

    Manuel nodded. “This is just how it ended up working out financially and all.”

    “Sure,” Red said.

    “How did you end up here?” Manuel asked.

    “Things weren’t working out so well at home and it seemed like a good place to be,” Red said. “That was two years ago. Guess it’s worked out.”

    “Good for you,” Manuel said and for the first time, Red smiled infinitesimally.  

    “Thanks.”

    “Hey, we’re going to Taco Bell, that okay with you?” Joshua asked Red, who nodded. 

    “Why didn’t you ask me?” Manuel grumbled.

    “Well, you’re Mex-” Manuel’s eyes narrowed and Joshua broke off, quickly (and obviously changing the direction of his sentence), “You don’t have the reputation Red does. I don’t care if you’re not happy with it.”

    “That was such a bad save I don't know if it even deserves to be called one,” Goodnight said, his lighthearted attitude managing to diffuse a little of the tension as he and Sam laughed. Joshua just shrugged, unfazed, and returned his eyes to the sidewalk in front of them as they passed through the school’s gates and turned onto the main road.

    “What reputation was he talking about?” Manuel asked Red. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

    “I don’t mind,” Red said coolly. “I got in a couple fights.”

    “And pummelled the opposition,” Goodnight added.

    “I didn’t really want to,” Red said. “It was necessary though, or else they would have come after me again.”

    “Seems reasonable to me,” Manuel said.

    “Hey, look!” Joshua said, pointing across the street at a group of girls walking the opposite direction. “I’m going to go talk to them.” He started to walk away, but Sam grabbed his arm, tugging him back. “What?” Joshua asked, clearly irritated.

    “First night back, remember?” Sam said.

    “Oh… Right,” Joshua said, seeming slightly chastened. “Still though…” his eyes moved past Sam again, focusing on the girls.

    “Later, my friend,” Goodnight said, clapping Joshua firmly on the shoulder and then pushing him on the right course again.

    “What’s the significance of the first night back?” Manuel asked.

    “Bros’ night,” Sam said. “We go out and eat, watch movies- stuff like that.”

    “I see,” Manuel said. 

    “Sam makes it sound cool but it pretty much just consists of everyone getting a sugar high and falling asleep in Sam’s room until he kicks us out, except for Joshua, who usually won’t leave,” Goodnight explained.

     “That sounds pretty fun, I guess,” Manuel said.

     “Good!” Goodnight said. “Well, that’s what’s on for when we get back, but for now, it’s eating as much as we can, and Joshua, I believe it’s your turn to pay. I covered it last year and Sam the year before, so…”   
    “But there’s three more than usual!” Joshua protested with a groan. “C’mon, Goody, that’s not fair.”

    “Yeah, well, you’re richer than the rest of us, so suck it up,” Goodnight said, smiling at Joshua, who glowered at him before saying grudgingly,

    “All right.”   
    “That’s the spirit,” Goodnight said, clapping him on the back.

    “Hey Red, where’s your roommate?” Sam asked into the silence that fell.

    “Oh, Jack?” Red asked. “He’s not getting here until tomorrow. Family stuff going on, or something like that.”

    “Ah,” Sam said, pulling open the door at the front of the familiar Taco Bell facade as they reached it, holding it open until everyone got inside. Manuel ended up in line next to the one member of the group he hadn’t met yet, and stood there somewhat awkwardly until Goodnight said, 

    “Oh, Manuel, this is my new roommate, Billy. Billy, Manuel; Manuel, Billy.” The two shook hands and Goodnight continued, saying, “He’s new here too; maybe you two can commiserate about it once you find out what things are like.”

    Manuel chuckled, though somewhat uneasily. “It’s that bad, eh?” He’d found out mostly good things about the school from his research, and he wasn’t happy to hear Goodnight’s assessment.

     “Well, you can make up your own mind starting tomorrow,” Goodnight said. “Hey, you know what you want? We’re just about up and Joshua looks like he’s already getting his wallet ready.”

    “Yeah, I think I’m set,” Manuel said, his eyes fixing on the largest combination he could find (he hadn’t eaten since very early that morning and he was quite famished), ignoring the resentful glance Joshua shot at Goodnight.

   Circled around the large table in the corner, they dug into their food ten minutes later, eating in quiet appreciation apart from the crunches and tearing noises for the first few minutes before conversation gradually began to break out again. “What classes you all got?” Sam asked.

    “Calc, AP Bio, British Lit, World History, and French,” Goodnight said before taking another bite out of a taco.

    “French?” Joshua repeated. “But aren’t you like, fluent?”

    “Well, not quite,” Goodnight said. “It could use a little work.”   
    Joshua looked at him skeptically.

    “Hey, it’s an easy A, all right? I could use that this year, considering my other classes,” Goodnight said.

    “Yeah, man, AP Bio?” Joshua said, cringing. “That doesn’t sound fun.”

    “Yeah. What about you, Billy?”

    Billy started slightly, clearly not having been expected to be included in the conversation. He finished chewing the bite of food in his mouth and then said, “AP Stats, AP English Lang, French, US History, and Physics.”

    “Hey, maybe we’ll have French together!” Goodnight said. “I can help you out with your homework if you want.”

    “Thanks,” Billy said, a hint of a smile breaking through his guarded expression.

    When they reached campus again, they headed straight up to Sam’s room. A lot of doors were open and the dorm was noisy with old friends happily reuniting and new ones trying to bond despite the chaos.

    “So, what are we watching?” Joshua asked as they entered Sam’s room, immediately flinging himself onto the bed.

    “The Equalizer,” Sam said. “And I already got the projector.”

    “All right!” Goodnight said enthusiastically. “I’ll get the snacks.”

    Joshua, Goodnight, and Red ended up side by side on the bed while Manuel, Sam, and Billy opted for the floor, and soon the movie started. The group ended up talking over most of the movie, and by the time they were starting the next one- another action film- they had already gotten through most of their snacks and were debating whether to go out and get more. Eventually, Sam, Billy, and Goodnight decided to go, leaving the other three to several attempts to get a conversation going before they all gave up and turned to their phones.

    By 3:30 AM, they’d made it through another two movies and everyone was falling asleep; school would start the next morning, so they decided to call it a night, though true to Goodnight’s word, Joshua was the most reluctant to leave and Sam and Goodnight had to haul him off the bed and push him out the door.

   They’d be starting their school year on less than three hours of sleep, which definitely was not ideal, but it was perhaps setting the theme for it more than they realized.


	3. Chapter 3

   Manuel draped his arm over his eyes, groping blindly for his phone to turn off his alarm. Across the room Joshua’s phone was going off likewise, a Dropkick Murphys song blaring from the tinny speaker. Joshua stuffed the phone under his pillow without turning off the alarm, and rolled over to go back to sleep. Manuel sat up, unplugging his phone and stretching, forcing his eyes to stay open. He got up and grabbed a towel, heading down to the showers in hope that the hot water would wake him up. It did, slightly, but when he got back to the room, Joshua was still fast asleep, snoring raucously. Manuel glanced at his watch. His first class was due to start in twenty minutes and he assumed Joshua’s was too. Damn. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with a just-woken Joshua, who would probably be crankier than usual, but Manuel knew he’d feel guilty if Joshua slept through his first class, even though it wasn’t technically Manuel’s responsibility to wake him.

    He crossed the room and shook the other boy’s shoulder. Nothing happened. “Hey, Joshua.” He shook him a little harder. “Faraday!” Joshua let out a groan and rolled farther away, cocooning himself tighter in his blankets. “It’s almost 7:00,” Manuel said. “Don’t you have class?”

    Joshua muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Screw class,” but Manuel wasn’t to be easily deterred.

    “C’mon Joshua!” he said. “Get up!”

    “Leave me alone!” Joshua said. “I’ve already tried it- they’re not gonna kick me out for missing classes.”

    Manuel frowned. “You… want to leave?”

    Joshua sat up suddenly, peeling away his blankets and sliding out of bed quickly, pushing past Manuel. “Never mind.”

    Manuel watched, confused, as Joshua shuffled into the hall, his hair mussed and his head dropped.

* * *

    “So what’s up with Joshua?” Manuel asked Sam as he sat down in the empty spot next to him in the classroom where their English Language class was held.

    “What are you talking about?” Sam asked, opening his notebook to a blank page and setting several pencils in the small groove at the edge of the desk.

    “It sounds like he’s trying to leave,” Manuel said, fumbling in his backpack for the right textbook without actually looking down at it. He quickly realized the attempt was futile, as his textbooks were too new for him to know them by feel, and he finally looked away from Sam to find it, succeeding in seconds.

    “That’s something you’ll have to ask Josh about, not me,” Sam said.

    Manuel was about to ask another question, but just then the teacher entered the classroom and he didn’t get the chance.

* * *

    “This is like this every morning?” Manuel asked Goodnight, marveling at the selection of food as they walked into the dining hall with Sam and Billy.

    “Yeah!” Goodnight said. “Pretty good, isn’t it?”

    “Yeah, it is,” replied Manuel, who was used to toast or plain cereal for breakfast since his family’s income allowed for little more.

    When the four sat down, they were soon joined by Joshua, Red, and a tall, curly haired student who looked built to be a highly effective linebacker. “Manuel, this is Jack,” Red said. “He’s my roommate.”

    “Pleased to meet you, Manuel,” Jack said with a pleasant Southern twang in his voice, extending a hand across the table.

    Manuel shook his hand, not surprised to find how firm the other boy’s grip was. “Nice to meet you.”

    Just then, Sam, who was seated on the opposite side of the table, frowned, his eyes focused on something behind Manuel, and Manuel was starting to turn when Sam said, “Don’t.”

    “What is it?” Manuel asked.

    “Benjamin McCann,” Joshua said. “Asshole thinks he owns the place.”

    “Well, he’s close with the Bogues, so he practically does,” Goodnight said.

    “Bogue… That’s one of the school board members, right?” Manuel said.

    Goodnight nodded. “And there’s something fishy about him. He’s got way too much money for the job he’s got.”

     “What do you mean?” Manuel asked.

     “You got most of the people here driving Fords and Chevys, and he drives a BMW,” Faraday said. “And that’s just one example. Something’s up with him.”

     “Maybe his wife-?” Billy suggested, but stopped as Sam was already shaking his head.

     “She’s dead,” Sam said. “And he was pretty much dirt poor when he started here.”

     “Huh,” Manuel said. His brain was tired and still working too slowly to contemplate it much, and from the slow movements and slightly dazed stares of several of the others, he could tell he wasn’t the only one.

    Breakfast done, Sam asked, “What classes you all got next?”

    It turned out Manuel and Joshua both had physics next, so when Joshua rose, asking impatiently, “You coming?” Manuel stood and followed him out of the dining hall.

    They were almost to class when McCann emerged from the crowd in the hall, another student on each side of him. “Oh, hello there, Faraday. Can’t say I expected to see you again here, but I guess you never know.”

    “Your nose didn’t heal up too bad,” Faraday commented. “Still a little crooked, but you know. Could be worse,” Manuel couldn’t help but snicker as McCann frowned, his brows drawing together angrily.

    “Yeah, whatever, Faraday. Say hi to your mom for me. Oh wait, you wouldn’t get a chance to, would you?”

    For a moment everyone froze. Manuel didn’t know the situation or the history between the two but he knew McCann had overstepped, and overstepped far. This was confirmed when Faraday surged forward with a roar, fist rising to take out McCann. Manuel moved fast, stepping between the two boys, stumbling back slightly when Faraday shoved him, trying to get him out of the way, growling, “Move it, Vasquez.”

    “No,” Manuel said. “Let it be, Joshua.”

    “He-”

    “I know,” Manuel said, hands raised appeasingly.

    “No you don’t,” Faraday snapped, and then turned away, storming into the classroom in long strides.

    Manuel didn’t look back at McCann and instead followed Joshua into the classroom. The only empty seat was one in the back corner of the room, on the opposite side as Joshua, so Manuel took it, but he couldn’t help but notice Joshua hunched over his desk, clearly still fuming from the encounter.

    Manuel frowned. He was deeply curious about what was going on, but the prospect of asking Joshua about it himself was not a tempting one considering how Joshua seemed to react whenever it was brought up.

    He pulled out his notebook and textbook as the teacher entered the room and resolved himself to try to focus.

* * *

    “Hey Joshua?” Manuel set down his pencil on his desk next to his notebook and looked back at his roommate, who was sitting on his bed with his computer in his lap. It had been a long day of classes, and both of them were already swamped with homework.

    “What?”

    His tone was hardly inviting, but Manuel pressed on. “What… what was McCann talking about earlier? About your mom?”

    Joshua’s expression darkened. “Mind your own business.”

    Then he slipped on his headphones and started to type again, and that was that.

   Unfortunately for Joshua, Manuel was an extremely persistent person, and had full confidence that he’d get the truth out of Joshua eventually, even if it would be a slow and painstaking process.


	4. Chapter 4

  “Hey, Goody, can you take a look at this?” Joshua asked, pushing a sheaf of papers across the table at Goodnight, who was working on his laptop on the other side.

    “You’re not giving me much of a choice, are you?” Goodnight asked, taking a cursory glance over the top sheet.

    “Please?” Joshua asked. “My English Lang teacher is gonna make life so hard for me if I don’t do a good job of this.”

    “All right, well, my first critique is this: can you write something I can actually read next time?”

    Joshua groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Are you kidding me?”

    “Does this say ‘ _chickens_?’” Goodnight squinted at the word in question. “Oh, no, ‘ _Dickens_.’ That makes more sense.”

    Joshua just grunted something no one could decipher and Goodnight pushed the papers back to him. “Legible handwriting this time.”

    “Why do we even have to handwrite this stuff?” Joshua grumbled. “It’s such a waste of time.”

    “Because-” Manuel started.

    “I know, I know,” Joshua cut in. “It’s going to be like that on the test. It was a rhetorical question. But we’re only a week into the school year- there’s plenty of time to practice-” He ignored Goodnight’s mutter of, “ _You need it_ ,” and Sam’s snort of laughter, “-and seriously, it’s just so…” He trailed off, grabbing a pen and starting to copy the essay onto a new sheet with a vengeance, pressing hard enough with the pen almost to tear through the page.

    “Hey Josh?” Emma, who had joined them at the local coffeehouse to study, said.

    “What?” Joshua snapped.

    “Take a break. Work on something else for awhile.”

    “I want to just get it done,” he said obstinately.

    “All right, suit yourself,” Emma said, returning her focus to her history textbook.

    “Would you look at that?” Goodnight said, nodding at a car passing outside in the street, a sleek silver Mercedes.

    “He got another new car?” Red asked incredulously.

    “Who is it?” Manuel asked.

    “Bart Bogue,” Sam said. He shook his head, frowning as his gaze followed the car until it disappeared in the traffic.

    “How is he doing this?” Jack asked, closing his textbook loudly.

    “I don’t know, but it makes me sick. I mean think about it- it’s probably stolen tuition money that paid for that car,” Goodnight said. “There’s no way he earns as much as he’s spending. I looked it up- he lives in one of the most ritzy neighborhoods around here too.”

    “All right, so what are we going to do about it?” Sam asked, and everyone stilled, staring at him; those who were still studying stopped.

    “‘Do about it?’” Joshua repeated. “What is there to do about it?”

    “Find out what exactly he’s doing,” Sam said. “Get him nailed for it.”

    “That sounds great, but I worked way too hard to get here to get kicked out for snooping around a Board member,” Manuel said.

    “Well, that’s the same for most of us,” Jack said. “But someone’s gotta do it and clearly the school’s not. Maybe we won’t find anything. Maybe he came across money some other way. But if he’s ripping off the school, ripping off all of us…”

    Red was nodding slowly. “I’m up for looking into it.”

    “Show of hands?” Sam suggested, raising his own. Jack was next, then Goodnight and Red, almost as one.

    “Billy?” Goodnight asked.

     Billy considered, and then shrugged, raising his hand. “Sure.”

    “Sounds pretty fun,” Joshua said. “And I got nothing to lose. I’m down.” He raised his hand, and then all eyes settled on Manuel.

    “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to,” Sam said. “Just don’t tell anyone about it.”

    Manuel sighed, his conscience battling with common sense. He knew what the others were thinking about was the right thing to do, but on the other hand… His family was counting on him and he was counting on himself to graduate here and get into a good college with good scholarships because of it. If he got kicked out now because of this…

    But on the other hand, if Bogue really was up to something and got away scot-free, Manuel knew he’d never stop feeling guilty for not having done anything about it when he could have. “All right,” he said finally. “I’m in.”

    “Good,” Sam said. “That makes seven of us.”

    “I don’t know how much I can do since I go to a different school and all, but anything I can, I’ll help with. This sounds hella sketchy to me too,” Emma added.

    “Yeah, I guess it does,” Billy agreed.

    “So, where do we start?” Joshua asked.

    “How about background on Bogue?” Sam said. “See if there’s any other way he could have come into this much money?”

    “I’m on it,” Joshua said, eagerly pushing his essay to the side, and sliding his laptop into its place.

* * *

    It was past ten o’clock that night when Manuel finished his homework, and he was just getting up to go get a snack from the vending machine in the hall when his phone began to ring. The name on the screen was his younger sister’s, and Joshua was nowhere to be found, so Manuel plopped down on his bed, picking up the call. “Hey Maria!”

    “Hi, Manu! How’re you?”

    “Not bad. Lot to get done, but nothing new there. How are you? How was your first week of eighth grade?”

    She groaned. “We have so much homework! I wanted to call you earlier, but Mom said I couldn’t until I finished.”

    “‘Least you’re done now, right?” Manuel said. “Do you like your teachers?”

    “Yeah, most of them,” she said. “The new history guy is kind of weird, but he’s all right.”  
    Manuel laughed. “Weird in what way?”

   She was just starting to answer when the door slammed open and Joshua came through. “Vasquez!”

    “Hey, I’m sorry, can you wait one sec?” Manuel asked his sister and as soon as she said yes, he covered the microphone and said to Joshua,

    “Can it wait? I’m talking to my sister.”

    “No, everyone’s in Sam’s room to talk about what I found out today. C’mon, if you don’t want to miss it.” Then he turned and walked out of the room again, closing the door just as loudly as he had opened it.

    Manuel sighed. “Hey, I’m really sorry, Maria, but can we talk tomorrow? Something came up.”

   “Oh,” she said, though she sounded slightly crestfallen. “Sure.”

   “Well, wait a sec,” Manuel said, glancing at his watch, and cursed under his breath. “You’ll be in bed in a half hour, won’t you?”

    “I can stay up,” she offered.

    “No, I don’t want you to get in trouble with Mom,” Manuel said. “Look, I’m really sorry. It’s this group project sort of thing I’m involved with-” Technically, not a lie, “-and they need me.”

    “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “We can talk another day. Love you, Manu!”

    “Love you too,” he replied. “Tell everyone hi from me!”

    “I will,” she said. “Bye!”

    “Bye,” he replied, standing as he hung up.

    When he reached Sam’s room, he found the other six clustered on the floor around Joshua, who had his computer in his lap.

    “Here, here, sit down,” Goodnight said, moving over slightly to make room for Manuel, who squeezed into the spot.

    “So,” Joshua said. “Basically, I found nothing.”

    Sounds of disappointment broke the baited silence. “What’d you bring us all in here for then?” Manuel asked.

    “No, no, not ‘nothing’ like that,” Joshua said. “I mean I found nothing, like I found no reason he’d have a bunch of money. His dad worked at Walmart most of his life and his mom was a hairdresser. Couldn’t find anyone wealthy in the family. But he does have-” He paused, referring to something on his screen, “a cousin in jail for theft.”

    “Oh really?” Sam said. “Interesting.”

    Joshua nodded. “Bogue doesn’t have a record, but he did get arrested one time. I couldn’t find out what for, though. He got off.”

    “Damn,” Goodnight muttered.

    “Still,” Sam said, clapping Joshua on the shoulder. “Good work, Josh. This is good progress.”

   Joshua grinned, one of the first genuinely happy, big smiles Manuel had seen from him. “Thanks, Sam. What’s next?”


	5. Chapter 5

    “Hey Joshua, I’m going to get some food- you want anything?” Manuel asked. Joshua glanced over at him from his own desk, pushing one side of his headphones off his ear.

    “What?”

    “I was just saying I’m gonna get a snack. Wanna come?”

    Joshua shrugged. “I don’t know, sure. Hold on a minute.” He turned back to his computer, furiously typing for a few moments while Manuel closed his textbooks, and then stood.

    Manuel slipped his phone into his pocket and grabbed his wallet and followed Joshua out the door. “Where are we going?” Joshua asked.

    Manuel shrugged. “I was thinking about the café on the main quad. Think they’re still open?”

    Joshua considered. “Probably.”

    Both were tired mentally from hours of studying and they walked for awhile in a silence which Manuel couldn’t determine to be either awkward or companionable. “So, uh… Are you from around here?” he asked finally. For having been rooming with Joshua for two weeks, Manuel knew very little about him now that he thought about it, and he supposed now was as good a time as any to ask some basic questions.

    “Not really,” Joshua said. “I grew up in Oklahoma.”

    Manuel nodded slowly, trying to think of something to ask about Oklahoma, but finding no useful facts to reference in his upcoming question, so when Joshua asked, “You?” he was grateful.

    “Texas,” he said. “El Paso.”

    “That’s a ways away,” Joshua said. “You got much family there?”

    Manuel nodded. “Parents and two sisters. How about you?”

    “Mine’s not in Texas,” Joshua said.

    “I know,” Manuel said quickly, “I mean, do you have much family in Oklahoma?”

    Joshua stuffed his hands in his pockets, his eyes on the grass as they stepped off the sidewalk to cut across the quad. “Some,” he said finally. “Hey, are you still working on the Bogue stuff?”

    “Yeah, but-”

    Joshua cut him off before Manuel could move back to the previous subject. “I found some stuff I want to talk to everyone about.”

    “You’ve been going after this hard, eh?” Manuel asked, and he saw Joshua’s face visibly relax now that Manuel had moved on to the new topic.

    Joshua shrugged. “It’s better than homework.”

    “True that,” Manuel said, chuckling. “So what did you find?”

    “I’ll tell you when I tell everyone else,” Joshua said, turning to the woman behind the counter to order a drink, which ended up being a double shot of espresso.

    “You planning on an all-nighter?” Manuel asked as Joshua paid.

    “Nah, caffeine doesn’t get to me that much anymore,” Joshua said. “I drink it too much.”

    “Mm,” Manuel said, taking another look over the menu options while the cashier made Joshua’s espresso.

    “I’m guessing you still feel it though?”

    “Yeah,” Manuel said. “We never had coffee around when I was growing up and I just started before school because I was up late working every night-” he shook his head. “I still feel it.”

    “Why’d you work so much?” Joshua asked.

    “To pay for school,” Manuel replied. Just then the woman returned to take his order and he didn’t notice the long look Joshua cast after him.

    They were walking back to the dorm when Manuel spotted Billy sitting under a tree outside the dorms, a textbook open in his lap and the white Apple logo on the back of the computer next to him glowing in the dim light. “What’s up, Billy?” he called, starting across the grass toward the other boy.

    “Oh, hey,” Billy said, giving a small smile as he waved.

    “What’re you studying?” Manuel asked, taking a seat on the grass next to Billy.

    “Calc,” Billy said. “Got this test thing coming up and apparently the curve is usually pretty generous because no one does well and the teacher doesn’t want to give everyone bad grades, but McCann’s in my class so I’m trying to do really well and mess up the curve for him.”

    Joshua and Manuel both broke into uproarious laughter. “I like the way you think, Billy,” Joshua said, clapping the other enthusiastically on the back.

    Billy chuckled, and Manuel added, “Sounds like a great plan. Anyone else know about it?”

    “Goodnight does,” Billy said. “He wouldn’t stop pestering me about why I was studying so much until I told him.”

    “Sounds like Goody,” Joshua said.

    “By the way, where’d he get that name?” Billy asked. “Can’t be his birth one, right?”

    “Nah,” Joshua said. “His birth name’s some complicated French thing, and he couldn’t pronounce it when he was little, so they started calling him ‘Goodnight’ because that was his first word, and the only thing he’d say for months once he started talking.”

    “Really?” Manuel asked and Joshua nodded. “That’s kinda cute.”

    Joshua nodded. “I teased him about it for months after he told me and he almost killed me. Actually, he probably would prefer you two didn’t know, at least not ‘til you know him better, so maybe don’t say I told you?”

    “Deal,” Manuel said, but Billy just shrugged, returning his gaze to his homework.

    “Billy?” Joshua prompted.

    “I’m working.”

    “Don’t tell him I told you,” Joshua said firmly, frowning when Billy didn’t acknowledge him. Manuel couldn’t tell if Joshua was going to let it go or turn the situation into a confrontation, so he decided to err on the side of caution and said,

    “I’m gonna head back now; you coming?”

    Joshua’s focus on Billy broke, and to Manuel’s relief, he just said, “Yeah, sure.”

    “All right, see you around, Billy,” Manuel said. “Good luck with that test.”

    Billy cracked a smile. “Thanks. Later.”

    When the two got back to their room, they wordlessly returned to their work, and when Manuel finally finished the assignment he was working on at just past midnight, he glanced over to see Joshua was already asleep, slumped over sitting up in his bed with his chin on his chest and a textbook in his lap. Manuel stood and turned off Joshua’s lamp, taking the textbook and setting it on the nightstand, and then settled into bed to go to sleep.

* * *

    He woke to the sound of loud cursing followed by a pained groan, and burrowed deeper into his blankets, trying to shield his ears from the racket, but he couldn’t ignore it any longer when Joshua’s exasperated voice said, “Vasquez! I know you’re awake!”

    Manuel sighed, considering whether he should attempt pretending to still be asleep before deciding it would be futile, and rolled over. “What?”

    Joshua was sitting on his bed with his head at an unnatural angle, his neck inclined forward and slightly to the side. “I got a cramp in my neck, and-” he started to turn his neck and froze. “-Shit!” he cursed vehemently. “It hurts like Hell. You should have woken me up!”

    Manuel frowned. “I put away your textbook and turned off your light. It’s not my responsibility to parent you, _cabrón_.”

    “Yeah, well, if you’re gonna bother doing anything, don’t go part-way next time. Just-” he cursed again as he stood and the angle of his neck inevitably shifted. “How am I even gonna do my homework like this?”

    Manuel softened slightly. He carried no guilt for his own actions, but he did have some sympathy for his roommate. “Hire a masseuse or something.”

    “But that’ll hurt,” Joshua protested.

    “More than you’re hurting right now?” Manuel asked, grabbing his shower caddy and a towel before sitting down on the edge of the bed again, limbs still heavy from sleep.

    “Yeah,” Joshua said.

   “Huh,” Manuel said. “Well, I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m gonna go take a shower. I’ll see you in class.” He stood, ignoring Joshua’s protests and pleas for help, and exited into the hall, closing the door behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

    “So, what’ve you got for us, Josh?” Sam asked as the group finished settling in around the largest table in the corner of the café, packed in shoulder to shoulder.

    “Well,” Joshua said. “I started thinking about that the school might have some breakdown of their spending somewhere, right?”

    “Yeah,” Goodnight said. “Good thinking. You find something?”

    “Yeah,” Joshua said. “They had a graph of spending on different parts of the school- books and teaching resources, sports, salaries, all that stuff. All of it kind of made sense except that the sports budget seemed way bigger than it should be considering everyone knows how bad our teams are and all the equipment seems really old and everything. So I talked to Emma, since she knows computers and all that and she figured out a way to access a more detailed breakdown of the budget. She said their site is out of date and it was really easy to get to the PDF she found all the stuff in. I think she just guessed the URL or something. Anyway-” he paused, unlocking his phone and opening something before reading off it. “They spent $10,000 on new sports uniforms and equipment last year.”

    “New uniforms?” Red repeated. “But all our uniforms are old. At least in track, they are.”

    “Exactly,” Joshua said. “I looked into some of the other teams too. Football uniforms are old, volleyball too. And none of the equipment I’ve seen around seems new. Anyway, I didn’t have time to look into the rest of the breakdown real closely but that part seems pretty weird.”

    “Yeah, it does,” Sam said. “Good work, Josh. I can keep looking through it if you want.”

    “Sure,” Joshua said. “I got a few papers I gotta write, so that’d be great.”

    “I can help too,” Manuel offered.

    “Have at it,” Joshua said. 

    “Damn, so we’re really onto something?” Goodnight said. “Honestly I thought this might just end up being a dead end, but…”

    “Doesn’t seem like it,” Sam said. “We’ll see what we can find in that budget stuff and if it’s substantial enough, maybe we can take it to the school board.”

    “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Joshua said. “Let’s take this bastard down!”

    That gained some cheers of approval from around the table, and they chatted about it a little while longer before finally settling down to focus on their work.

    “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Joshua care about something this much,” Goodnight muttered to Manuel as Joshua began to bob his head to the music now playing through his headphones.

    “Really?” Manuel asked.

    “Yeah,” Goodnight said. “It’s good to see. He’s less apathetic than he seems.”

    “He just… needed something worthwhile to care about?” Manuel asked.

    Goodnight nodded slowly. “Exactly.”

* * *

    When Manuel entered his dorm room late that night after studying in the lounge at the end of the hall for several hours, Joshua’s angry voice immediately met his ears, but this time it wasn’t directed at him. “-not gonna go there anyway, so why does it matter what grades I get?” He paused and Manuel took a step back, feeling that he was intruding on something very personal. “You never listen to me, Dad! I don’t-” Joshua paused, obviously having been interrupted. “I don’t care!” he bellowed suddenly. “I don’t want to be a doctor! I don’t fucking care where I get into school.” Manuel was about to close the door and head back to the lounge to take a nap when Joshua shouted, “You know what, fuck it, you leave me the Hell alone!” and hung up the phone before hurling it to the ground; the back broke off on impact and skittered across the floor, but Joshua ignored it, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, his shoulders slumped.

    Manuel hesitated, unsure if he should retreat and hope Joshua wouldn’t notice or if he should just come in and pretend he hadn’t heard anything. Eventually he opted for the latter, putting in his earbuds before he went to further his ruse that he was unaware of what was going on.

    Joshua didn’t acknowledge his presence when he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, crossing the room to set his books and laptop on his desk before changing into his pajamas and grabbing his toothbrush and toothpaste. 

    When he returned from the bathroom, Joshua was still sitting slouched at his desk, looking utterly defeated.

    “Where are you going?” Manuel asked as Joshua rose suddenly and slipped on a jacket, stepping into his sneakers as he walked toward the door.

    “Not your business, Vasquez,” he said, his voice harsh, but tired.

    “Well, it’s past 11:00, you’ll get in trouble if you’re caught-”

    “I know what time it is,” he snapped, and then walked into the hall, slamming the door behind him. Manuel could hear his heavy footsteps for a few moments before they faded back to silence.

    He lay there on his back for a few minutes, wondering if he should do anything about Joshua’s situation, and if so, what, also weighing the option of texting Sam and asking for his advice. But in the end, it became fairly obvious- his roommate, who was also to some degree his friend, had stormed out in a rage at a time of night that would earn him detention if he was caught; he was clearly in more of a mood to cause trouble than be reasoned with, and someone would have to stop him. That someone could not be someone from the school, as Joshua was apparently convinced he would not be kicked out for virtually anything he did, and would therefore likely not listen to any employees. Also, Manuel had to take into account that he was the one to have heard the argument, or at least part of it, and he didn’t want to betray Joshua’s privacy by relaying what he had heard to anyone else in their friend group.

    And so the task of stopping Joshua fell to him.

    He rose, pulling on a hoodie over the ratty T-shirt he always wore to bed, and laced on the sneakers he’d tucked under his bed. Reaching the door that led out of the dorm and onto the path outside stopped him for a moment. Unlike Joshua, he had no get-out-of-jail free card, and he would be in big trouble if he were caught. But then he remembered how reckless Joshua had seemed when he left and it wouldn’t surprise Manuel one bit if he was feeling self-destructive at the moment. He opened the door and stepped outside, the chill air sending goosebumps up his arms, even under the relatively thick material of his hoodie. 

    He started down the path, glancing around nervously for any faculty that his paranoia apparently expected to find crouched behind the bushes that lined the path. But the night was still and silent, revealing no clues to where Joshua could have gone. The only sounds were the hum of crickets and the rustle of rippling leaves as wind wove through the tree branches.

    Forty-five minutes of weaving through the paths yielded no results, and when he finally reached the gates after searching most of the campus, he realized he might have to cast a wider net to find Joshua. 

    Getting caught after hours on campus was one thing, but getting caught leaving campus in the middle of the night was entirely another. The first probably meant detention and a maybe a letter to his parents. The second was much more serious, and he didn’t even know what the repercussions would be. So he hesitantly turned back, taking a circuitous route back to the dorm in hopes that he would find Joshua before he reached the building again.

    He was a few buildings away from his own when he heard a quiet clink to his left and turned to see a single form slouched against the wall in the narrow alley between two buildings, a bottle on the ground next to him, the bright full moon casting his shadow long across the cement.

    Manuel sighed, turning to walk down the alley, wincing when he saw that Joshua was sporting a black eye and a line of blood traced from his nose down to his upper lip. “What happened to you?” Manuel asked as he sat down across from Joshua.

    Joshua looked up blearily. “Got in a fight.”   
    “With who?”

    “McCann’s group,” Joshua spat, raising his bottle again to take a swig.

    Manuel gestured toward the bottle. “Where’d you get that?”

    “Does it matter?” Joshua asked.

    Manuel shrugged. “I guess not. What’s going on?”

    Joshua didn’t answer immediately, his gaze affixed on the ground. “I had an argument with my dad,” he said finally.

    “What about?” Manuel didn’t know if Joshua wanted to talk about it, or if it would do any good, but he figured it was worth a shot.

    “We… It’s sort of a long story,” Joshua said.

    “I don’t have anything I need to do,” Manuel replied.

    “All right,” Joshua picked up the bottle again and held it out to Manuel, who shook his head, pushing Joshua’s hand back. Joshua shrugged and took another sip before letting out a long sigh and beginning to talk. “My dad wants me to be a doctor. He already decided where he wants me to go to school, he’s got my whole life planned out. Only thing is-” he chuckled bitterly. “-I don’t want to do it. Tonight he said I got my laziness from my mom and that- that’s crossing a line. That bastard shouldn’t even be speaking her name, he just used her.” He broke off, his brow deeply furrowed, his face contorted with anger.

    “What happened?” Manuel asked, dearly hoping he wouldn’t anger Joshua further by asking.

    “She was a prostitute,” Joshua said. “He got her pregnant, they got married. There were people after her and he said he was gonna protect her. Then she had me and after a few years he got tired of her, talked her into a divorce when she was dealing with depression and he wasn’t doing shit to help. He’d kept her under wraps, he treated her like a dog. Obviously he got custody of me ‘cause she had nowhere to go, she was going back to the streets while he had a good job and a nice house. Police found her beaten to death a couple months later, they thought it was her dealer from before but they never caught him.” Manuel knew he saw tears gleaming in Joshua’s eyes but he didn’t know what to say or do to comfort him. Joshua took another sip from his bottle, roughly wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Ever since then I lived with my dad dictating every fucking thing I did. He sent me here even though I hated it, he stopped me from doing pretty much anything I ever wanted to, I never got to be a kid because of him, I never-” his voice broke and he stopped, his shoulders drooping forward as he rested his face in his hands, his body curling in on itself. Manuel hesitated and then shifted across the alley to sit next to Joshua, resting a hand on his shoulder, unsure what to say. 

    “I’m sorry, _güero_ ,” he said finally, giving Joshua’s shoulder a light squeeze.

    Joshua just nodded, not speaking for several long moments. “It’s why I hated you so much, you know,” he said, finally meeting Manuel’s eyes, his gaze surprisingly lucid for one who had drunk so much. “You had everything I wanted. I didn’t want all this fancy shit my dad gets me, I just wanted a real home, a family.” His voice grew so quiet, so broken, Manuel didn’t know what else to do except wrap an arm around Joshua’s shoulders, feeling his body shake as it was wracked with silent sobs. He felt helpless but strangely protective of the gruff but surprisingly vulnerable boy sitting next to him and when Joshua finally began to still and reached for the bottle again, Manuel pulled it out of his reach, setting it as far away as he could without moving. Joshua grunted in protest but made no move to reach for it again. A few moments later he began to push himself to his feet, but staggered, unsteady from the alcohol, and Manuel clambered upright, hurrying to wrap an arm around his shoulders so he wouldn’t fall over.

    “I’m fine,” Joshua muttered, but Manuel didn’t let go, saying,

    “No, you aren’t.” He only let go of Joshua briefly to pick up the bottle from the ground, not wanting to leave any evidence, and tossed it out in the first trash can they reached. Joshua’s footsteps were unsteady and he leaned more and more heavily on Manuel the farther they walked.

    By the time they got back to the dorm, Joshua was nearly asleep on his feet, and he gracelessly collapsed face-first on his bed as soon as he reached it. He was unconscious immediately, but Manuel could not sleep for hours.


End file.
